Telecommunications (International Edition) articles from May 2005

Telecommunications (International Edition) archives from May 2005

The 'U' word: is it fundamentally in the interest of the networking community to develop an all-things-to-all-men approach?(commentary)
May 1, 2005... Semantics (as much as anything else) seems to drive innovation these days. State something, and hey presto, you might just have a major concept. Thinking along these lines, I recently discovered 'Ubiquitous Networking'. Now, there's a word:...

Will the big vendors consolidate?(global news analysis)
May 1, 2005... Rumours always have a certain charm. After all, as they say, why let the truth get in the way of a good story. At present, the rumour mill is whirring for the vendors. Lucent hitched to Nortel, Nortel to Cisco, Siemensselling its handsets...

Diversification is key, says Ciena CEO.(global news analysis)
May 1, 2005... For someone who has initiated a string of portfolio-broadening acquisitions in recent years, Gary Smith, CEO of Ciena--an optical network vendor--con hardly be accused of letting the grass grow under his feet. "When the bubble burst in 2001, we...

PacketExchange: without peers?(global news analysis)(Company Profile)
May 1, 2005... PacketExchange, a wide-area peering provider, launched two new services last month--eXpress and eXpand. "eXpress is a global peering VLAN service, which has never been done before," says Kieron O'Brien, CEO of PacketExchange. "eXpand is a new...

Dial 'ENUM' for murder?(global news analysis)
May 1, 2005... Once, there was just a switched handset, firmly attached to wall, and the dial had letters as well as numbers--not to send email, but to select the local connection. Now, things are more complicated. Not only are there fixed and mobile phones,...

Begin the BGAN: Inmarsat banks on broadband mobile satellite for future growth.
May 1, 2005... After nearly ten years in the planning, Inmarsat successfully propelled its first broadband satellite into orbit on 11th March 2005; it is the clearest evidence yet that the company's BGAN [Broadband Global Area Network] service will soon be...

WiMAX: saluting the standard: it's all about volume economics, say the WiMAX Forum.(Wireless world)(Cover Story)
May 1, 2005... One fax machine is no use to anyone. Two fax machines start to make more sense. Two fax machines to the power of a large number is, at least potentially, a good business. 'How many is enough' is, to a certain extent, the issue that faces the...

Why Wi-Fi? Enterprise adoption of Wi-Fi--both in the WAN in the LAN--is still limited. What's holding it back?(Wireless world)
May 1, 2005... Operators who are expanding their Wi-Fi footprints are always keen to say how many public hotspots they have. As for hard Wi-Fi metrics on usage and revenue, however, those still appear to be closely guarded secrets. Take T-Mobile. It has...

ZigBee: control and power: ZibBee products are to start shipping this year into a still tiny market.(Wireless world)(ZigBee)
May 1, 2005... Most wireless standards have fairly grand ambitions. UMTS won't quite make mobile access faster than a speeding bullet, but it certainly supports more data and solutions than GSM. ZigBee, or 802.15.4 is not like that. Its aims are, at least...

Tunnel vision: network-based mobile VPNs--otherwise known as 'compulsory tunneling'--will enable mobile operators to target enterprise users with scarce IT resources.(Wireless world)
May 1, 2005... The concurrent evolution of computing, microelectronics, wireless data technologies and the internet has given rise to a new trend in global telecom--data mobility. With the market for high-speed wireless data services growing steadily, the...

Beyond the brand: the MVNO cannot simply rely on a strong brand name to succeed. Market differentiation and the lowering of running costs will be the winning factors.(Wireless world)(mobile virtual network operators)
May 1, 2005... The mobile marketplace is no longer the preserve of network operators. Big retail brands--such as Virgin, easyGroup and Tesco--have also launched mobile subscription services by riding 'piggy-back' on service providers' existing infrastructure...

Lighting the load: will the European fixed-line market see prices rise?(Wireless world)(Industry overview)
May 1, 2005... On some subsea routes (as the feature on pg. 41 describes), demand and lit supply are nearing equilibrium--which should give operators a chance to levy charges that include a reasonable profit margin. Is the same thing happening in fixed-line?...

Bad undercurrents: the submarine telecom sector continues to be plagued by irrational pricing.(industry & market update)
May 1, 2005... The long-running and commercially destructive pricing battle in the transoceanic telecom arena must surely be moderating. There is even evidence of increasing pricing of bandwidth on some routes, such as US/Australia/New Zealand. However,...